Fight for My Heart
by Kaffiene
Summary: It's time for the Chuunin Exams!  The genin have no idea what's in store for them...
1. Chapter 1

It was a warm, sunny day and the hidden ninja village of Konoha was bustling with people. This was the day of the Chuunin Exams and spectators, ninja, and prospective chuunin had come from all over. The main streets were so crowded that the street itself could barely even be seen. The only things anyone talked about were the participants and how the matches could possibly play out.

"Won't this be amazing?" A pair of young ninja shouldered their way through the large crowd outside the exams to a less populated side street. "I mean, sure, I've been to the exams before, but this time we're actually going to be in it!" The girl squealed with delight, but the boy walking with her sighed, putting his hands in his pockets. The girl rolled her eyes at him and crossed her arms. "Oh, please. I know you're excited."

The boy looked over at her from the corner of his eyes and shrugged. "Not really, Rei." He smirked. "And you think you know me." He stopped and leaned against a wooden post.

The grin disappeared from the girl's face. "You're such a liar, Shikamaru." With another eye roll she left, leaving him to his laziness that seemed almost selfish sometimes. She could practically feel his eyes on her back as he watched her walk away. A trace of guilt tugged at her conscience, but she soon stuffed it back down. It's not like she was harsh at all. He heard stuff like that from her all the time, anyway. If he wasn't used to it by now, he never would be.

In an attempt to get that frustrating boy out of her mind, Rei searched the crowds for any familiar heads. She stood on her toes next to a building, using the wall to better balance herself. It was times like this that she wished she was just a little taller. Someone a ways to her left shouted suddenly, sparking a smile on the young ninja's face. She'd recognize that voice anywhere. "Naruto!" Rei cupped her hands around her mouth. "Over here!"

The knucklehead looked around, thinking he heard his name. It didn't take him long to see the pair of arms waving above the heads of the people passing by. He pushed and shoved his way through them until finally he made his way over to Rei. Naruto gave off a big cheesy grin, and she returned it perfectly, causing a slight pink tint to appear on the hardheaded genin's cheeks. He'd had a bit of a thing for her since their days in the academy. It had always been stronger than what he felt for Sakura, and ever since he and Rei and become close friends, the feelings had only increased.

"Hey, Naruto. Are you as excited as I am?" Her enthusiasm radiated from her, another reason she and Naruto were such good friends. They complemented each other rather well.

"You bet!" He flashed quick thumbs up, winning him a smile in return. "You can be sure that I'll win my match, no sweat!"

"I am, Naruto-kun," she smiled. "Come on. I want a good seat." Rei grabbed his wrist and quickly started toward the entrance to where the exams would be held. Naruto stumbled along behind her, still processing the fact that Rei was actually touching him.

Inside, the stadium was steadily filling up with people, the lower half of the stands already almost full. Though most people, especially ninja, were dressed in blacks, whites, and beiges, vibrant colors dotted the crowd. Rei hurried down the set of steps in the section she'd been told to sit in. At the bottom of the stairs and next to the rail she found the familiar faces of fellow genin that she'd been hoping to see. She let go of Naruto and hurried down the steps, taking them two at a time.

The small group of kids turned to see who the new arrival was. Shino nodded in her direction while Sakura and Ino smiled warmly. Kankuro and Temari showed small polite smirks, and Gaara merely glared just as he always did. Rei noticed that Shikamaru barely acknowledged her presence, looking at her for a second until she sent him a sideways glance. Afterward, he just continued talking to Choji about something with serious looks on both their faces. She didn't get much of a chance to think about it before Naruto burst in to the little ring of people.

While Ino was busy yelling at him, telling him to learn some manners, Rei sat on the bottom row of the stands, gripping her knees tightly, her elbows locked. "Nervous?" Looking up, she saw Sakura smiling down at her.

"Yeah, a bit," she admitted with a small smile.

Sakura sat down next to her with a heavy sigh. "I wonder if Sasuke's nervous…" She had an elbow on her knee with her hand under her chin. Rei shook her head with a grin. Sometimes she almost felt sorry for the boy. Almost. All those fan girls… She wasn't a fan girl herself, but at one time she did have a crush on Sasuke for exactly two days. That was all it took her to realize what an antisocial jerk he was.

"I doubt he is." Sakura looked at Rei with a questioning look on her face. "I mean, it's Sasuke. I doubt that somebody that arrogant would be nervous." The humor left Sakura's face as she stood, glaring at Rei. She turned on her heel and stormed off to the other side of the group of genin.

Rei smirked at the girl's attitude. She loved the fact that she could always say something to get Sakura to go away and leave her alone for the next several minutes. It wasn't that she didn't like Sakura. In fact, the two were rather good friends. Rei just didn't want to talk to anyone at the moment. A couple times now, she'd seen Shikamaru and Choji glancing over at her during their conversation. More than that, Shikamaru's expression wasn't his normal tired and indifferent appearance. For once, it actually looked like he cared about something. Likewise, Choji didn't have any food in front of him, and was listening to Shikamaru with a somewhat somber look.

"Hmm…" Rei sat up straight, hiding her hands between her legs. She pretended to be looking at the genin in front of her while she quickly and discretely did a few hand signs. As she closed her eyes and lowered her head, her hearing increased sharply. Suddenly, she could hear the thunderous sound of the hundreds of conversations buzzing throughout the stadium. Rei winced slightly. The few times she'd done this jutsu before, it was never in a place this crowded. She struggled to bring her range of hearing down until she could only hear the voices of the people she knew to be within the same area of the stands as her. The noise became much more bearable, and she was able to relax again and straighten her back. Rei began to sort through bits and pieces of conversations until she got to a voice she recognized all too well.

"…else could I do? I can't just walk up to her and say it."

Shikamaru. To hold the jutsu and keep herself focused, Rei breathed as if she was meditating.

"Well, why not? The worst thing she could say is 'sorry, no.'"

"Yeah, and then we'll feel awkward around each other for the rest of time."

"But at least you'd still be friends," the voice that could have only been Choji sighed. "She doesn't seem like the kind to avoid someone because there might be an awkward silence or two."

There was a pause between them during which the other voices mumbled along in the background.

"Why am I even talking to you about this? It's not like you've ever had a girlfriend."

Rei tensed. She'd guessed they were talking about Shikamaru liking some girl, but part of her didn't want to believe it. She didn't know why. It wasn't like she liked him or anything.

"Maybe not, but I have liked girls before. And I never said I was an expert. And you have no room to talk. You're the one who came to me."

"But…no, Choji. You don't get it. Having a girl tell you 'we can still be friends' is like your dog dying and your mom saying you can still keep it."

Rei had to admit it was a pretty good analogy. Even though he was such a bum, Shikamaru was still known for being clever.

"And don't give me any of that 'you'll forever wonder what could have been' stuff. You're not old enough to know."

"I wasn't going to."

There was a crinkling noise like that of a candy wrapper or a bag of chips. It sounded like Choji was starting to get tired of the conversation. A small breeze hit Rei's face as someone passed by, followed by the smell of chocolate. So maybe Choji still had a bit left in him since it wasn't him eating the candy bar.

"So should I tell her or not?"

By now, Rei was pretty much certain Shikamaru was debating over whether or not to tell the girl he liked that he did indeed like her. It seemed alright to her, but for some reason she was feeling increasingly jealous. Was it because she just never really got along with girls as well as guys and if Shikamaru got a girlfriend it would mean having to hang out with a squeaky, annoying, prepubescent girl who actually acted like a squeaky, annoying, prepubescent girl? Oh, the horror… But he wouldn't be into someone like that. Surely not…probably…hopefully…

"I don't know. Would you actually do it?"

"Nah. I'd probably just chicken out."

"You could get someone else to find out if she likes you or not."

"Hmm. That's not a bad idea," Shikamaru said with a small chuckle. "Hey, Choji –"

"Not me. I'm not a messenger."

Rei heard a grunt from her friend. "Fine. Hey, can you do me a favor?"

"Sure." He must have been asking someone else because Choji's voice was lower than that.

Shikamaru hushed his voice. "Can you ask someone if she likes me?"

The other person giggled, but not in a way that made it clear if the voice belonged to a girl or boy. "Who?"

A sudden deafening roar made Rei jump, eyes open wide. She quickly released the jutsu, making her hearing return to normal. All around the stadium, people were on their feet, cheering and shouting. Rei turned her head to try to see who Shikamaru recruited. Even if she didn't catch the lucky lady's name, she could watch that other person to see who they go to talk to. Unfortunately, she was too late. The two boys were back to acting like their usual selves, Shikamaru suddenly half-asleep and Choji buried in a bag of chips.

"Whoa, Rei . . . " Naruto went to where she was sitting alone in the stands surrounded by people standing and cheering in anticipation. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah. Why –" She realized she was holding her head and squinting from the roaring noise still ringing through her head. "Oh, I'm fine." She let go of her head and pushed herself up out of her seat. "I just got a bit of a headache," she said with a reassuring smile. Regretfully, she wasn't lying, but the splitting pain in her temples was already starting to fade away.

"Oh. Well, I hope it goes away before your match," he whispered with a bit of concern showing on his face. Rei was a little surprised. She didn't think Naruto knew how to whisper.

"Rei! Get over here!" Kiba was turned away from the rail near one of the walls that divided the sections of the stands and waved for her to join him.

Naruto looked panicked. "Kiba, don't yell!" he screamed right next to Rei, making her flinch. "She has a headache!"

"It's . . . fine, Naruto," Rei said as calmly as she could. She weaved through the people who crowded the rail to get a good view.

Kiba pulled her through a couple of people until she could reach the rail herself. "Hey, stranger." Akamaru barked his greeting. "Have you seen Sasuke yet?" he asked, looking over her head at the swarm of people behind her. "I wanna see what happens when there's a no-show."

Rei sighed at his heartlessness. "I haven't. Neither has Sakura, and if she hasn't seen him, he's definitely not here yet."

"True," he smirked. "I'll just listen for squeals of excitement, then."

That comment made her laugh. Kiba always seemed to know how to do it. They'd been neighbors since Rei's parents moved to Konoha from a small village after their daughter started to show promise as a ninja at the age of three. She didn't belong to a noble bloodline. Her parents simply wanted to have a kunoichi daughter to be proud of, and in turn, Rei wanted to be a kunoichi they could be proud of. Her motivation and potential got her placed a year ahead in the academy so that she was in Kiba's class, which made both of them happy.

"Rei," he said, noticing she was off in her own world. "Naruto's match is starting."

"Oh, good." She turned from where she had been staring blankly at the wall and starting shouting for her friend, hoping he'd kick major butt. She didn't really know Neji, but he seemed like a prick.

Right from the start, the punches were flying, mostly from Naruto. Once or twice, the fighting paused. Rei could see that the two were talking, but she couldn't hear what they were saying. The battle went on pretty ordinarily for a while until Rei had to bite her lip. Neji was doing a series of hand signs, and from the looks of it and Naruto's face, it wasn't good news. A few people in the crowd gasped when Naruto was pummeled by Neji's attack. Rei, having been one of the gaspers, looked over at Hinata. Her eyes were big, meaning Neji's attack must have been truly bad news for Naruto. There was another pause in the combat when Rei looked back down, but she only saw Neji. Then, suddenly, Naruto burst out of the ground, landing a solid punch on his opponent. Rei screamed, knowing that at this rate, she wasn't going to have any voice tomorrow. Naruto was declared the winner, and she couldn't have been happier with the outcome.

It was only when she stopped jumping up and down that Rei noticed how much her hands were shaking in nervous anticipation. Kiba noticed, too. "Is that because you're nervous or because you've been jumping around since the match started?"

"I'm pretty sure it's because I'm nervous," she grinned, "but I suppose it could be both." To stop the shaking, she gripped the rail in front of her tightly, but she just started bouncing on her toes. "Kiba, I'll be back in a bit." She left as he nodded, his eyes still fixed on the arena floor, waiting for the next match to start.

Getting up the steps between the rows of benches wasn't too difficult since most people were either sitting or crowded together down at the rail. However, since there wasn't a match going on at the moment, people were getting up and moving around. At the top of the stairs, Rei looked around, taken aback at the amount of people milling around. She shook her head and began carefully picking her way through people until she got to the other side, following the wall until she got to the girl's bathroom. The line stretched so far back that it almost extended out the open doorway. With a heavy sigh, Rei took her place and felt the kunai hanging on her hip to give her hands something to do so that they wouldn't shake too much.

After several minutes and hearing several roars from the crowd watching the match that started while she was away, Rei started washing her hands at the only available sink. She was mad that she was missing a battle, but blaming everyone else for needing to use the bathroom at the same time made her feel a little better. As she left, TenTen walked in. Rei glanced over to her with a small grin since the two were only acquaintances, but TenTen stared a little longer. When they passed each other, Rei looked over her shoulder, feeling a little uneasy because of her.

By the time she was back at Kiba's side, the match was over and the crowd was cheering. "Who was just fighting?" she asked, unable to see the faces of the genin clear on the other side of the arena floor. She didn't recognize the names when he replied, making her happy she hadn't missed anything. "Who's next?" This time, she knew the names, but she didn't really know either person that well. "And then it's me, isn't it?"

Kiba looked over at her with a smile and nodded. "Yep. You'll do fine." He reached over and ruffled her hair.


	2. Chapter 2

In what seemed like no time at all, Rei was down on the arena floor, looking up at the stands full of people. The crowd seemed a lot bigger from down there. She had to grip the hems of her shorts to keep her hands from shaking even more than they already were. Her wandering eyes found Kiba smirking at her from where he was leaning on the wall Rei had been standing next to only a minute ago. Next to him was Shikamaru, but he hadn't been there before. He, too, was looking down at her with his apathetic stare. She saw his lips move. Kiba replied, a curious look on his face as he turned to Shikamaru.

A voice startled her. "Are you ready?" It was the proctor. Rei nodded and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves and ready herself. She turned to face her opponent, a genin who was also from Konoha. He was two years older than her and had been in the class ahead of Naruto and Kiba's. He had short, chestnut colored hair and eyes that matched. He was about a foot taller than Rei, and she was a bit tall for her age to begin with. He wore a black tight-fitting tank top and somewhat slender matching black pants. He had the normal fingerless ninja gloves, but he also wrapped his arms up to his elbows with a black material. On a belt that hung loosely on his hips was his shuriken pouch. Rei had noticed during the preliminaries in the Forest of Death that he was a quiet person, and right now, he looked just as tense as she felt. She flashed him a nervous smile, and he returned it. At least now they wouldn't have any hard feelings toward each other afterwards.

"Ready?" The proctor raised his hand, and Rei took a ready stance, her opponent following suit. Her back was to the larger clump of trees. There was only a big empty space behind him. She smirked. She already had a strategy. The stadium had fallen nearly silent in light of the imminent match.

"Begin!"

Before the proctor barely even finished the word, Rei shot backward in an arc, doing a slow back flip in the air as she went. She was facing her opponent again by the time she broke through the leaves of a tree and landed kneeling down on one knee. She kept her eyes fixed on him, knowing that unless he was using a special jutsu to see better, she was completely hidden from him. Her hands quickly worked their way through a series of hand signs, finishing with a smirk on her hidden face. Rei was in her element now.

The leaves rustled as she jumped high out of the tree toward her opponent. She launched all the kunai she had attached to her hip at him, aiming for his arms and legs. He dodged swiftly, just as she had expected him to. Following just behind the kunai were several shuriken. This time, two of them grazed his left forearm. Rei landed on the ground in a fighting stance, but she couldn't help raising her eyebrows when he smiled at her while holding onto his arm where he'd been hit. Suddenly, with a pop, he disappeared, a small cloud of smoke taking his place. She took in a sharp breath of air. She'd been watching him the whole time, so how could she have missed him creating a clone? Unless…

Rei mentally smacked herself. He did it when she back flipped. His reflexes must be really good.

A shout came from almost immediately behind her, and Rei quickly whipped around with a high kick. He had jumped down at her to punch her, but her foot pushed his arm away, sending him flying far to her left. He landed on his toes and a hand and slid a good six feet. Without hesitating, he ran back at her, now holding a kunai. Rei reached into the shuriken pouches she had strapped to each of her legs. As she brought her hands back out, there was a finger going through the hole of each shuriken, a technique Rei came up with since her fingers were so long and skinny. She called them shuriken knuckles since she used them like brass knuckles.

There was a sharp clink of metal-on-metal. The blade of the kunai had hit between the sharpened points of the stars. Rei smirked at the confused look on her opponent's face. "Don't even try it," she cooed, her voice just above a whisper. "Your fingers are too big."

With a growl, he pushed off of her and landed a few yards back. He grabbed two more kunai between the knuckles of the hand that held the other dagger and threw all three at her. As she spun to dodge them, he crouched down and started doing hand signs. When she saw what he was doing, Rei stuffed her hands back into her shuriken pouches and let the material itself pull the shuriken off her fingers. What she heard didn't surprise her too much.

"Snaking vine jutsu!" He slammed one of his hands on the ground, the other still holding the last sign of the jutsu. Rei saw him do this technique during his preliminary fight, so she was able to learn from the mistakes of the sucker that had to be up against him first.

She leapt away from where she had been standing just as a tangled mess of vines burst out of the compacted earth. Once she hit the ground, she kept running, leaving behind a trail of vines that had sprouted rapidly from the dirt trying to catch her. She was running in a large circle around him, trying to think of a plan. She got so far out that she was running along the arena wall and looked behind her to see how she was faring against the vines. Taking a short deep breath, she jumped and began running on the wall, focusing much of her chakra into her feet. She turned her head to look at her opponent. He was standing and facing her. She realized he must have broken the jutsu because it didn't work if she wasn't on the ground. Rei took note of that and stopped running, putting more chakra into her hand so that she could hang on to the wall.

The two took a mutual pause. Rei was breathing harder from the running, but she still had a lot left in her since she spent a large chunk of training time on building stamina. Her opponent was squinting up at her hanging off of the arena wall, thinking through a possible strategy. Until now, the crowd had been relatively quiet, drawn in by the battle, but now that there was a break, the people were cheering again.

"GO REI!" She glanced quickly up to her left toward the source of her name and saw that Naruto had gotten a group of the genin to cheer simultaneously for her. Kiba and Shikamaru were still standing next to each other and talking. Kiba meet Rei's glance with a smirk and a nod. Shikamaru just stared back at her, the same bored look on his face that he always wore.

Grinning with renewed energy from her cheering section, Rei looked back down at her opponent with a determined look on her face. She brought her free hand up to the wall and pumped chakra into it so that she was poised like a coiled spring ready to release. She lowered her head and shot off the wall, her body streamlined with her arms stretched out in front of her. To the spectators, she was only a blur while streaking through the air. To her wide-eyed opponent, she was a rapidly approaching glare with hands.

Rei caught his shoulders with her body still pointed at an upward angle, and he had to take a step back to stay on his feet because of her momentum. His hands grasped her wrists tightly to help himself stay stable. She smirked and let her wrists slacken as she hit him, making her body flip over him. She kicked her feet back so that together they formed a bridge, both of them bending far backward with Rei still clutching his shoulders. With a shout, Rei straightened herself and threw her opponent over her head toward the trees. Just as she was flinging him over her, she let go. She jumped after him and punched him in the middle of his back, sending him flying into the clump of trees.

The crowd roared, and Rei stood bent over and panting with the effort of that move. Before, she'd only dreamt of doing it but never had the opportunity. It was a risky thing to whip out in the Chuunin Exams without having practiced, but she smiled, proud that it had worked. She straightened up and slowly wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. Suddenly, a pair of vines shot out from the shadowed area under the trees and caught Rei's arms and legs. She struggled and pulled at them, but they were wrapped around her two or three times.

Her opponent walked out from the trees, also panting. With his head lowered, his hair was hanging just out of his eyes. He stared Rei down as he approached her, clutching the vines that held her captive in each hand. She growled and gnashed her teeth as she continued to struggle against the hold he had on her. He stopped right in front of her, looking down at her. She glared back at him, hating the feeling of not being able to move. Neither of them did anything.

"Is this your first time in the Exams?" he asked, still breathing heavily.

Rei looked up at him and met his gaze, a fierce look in her eyes. After a pause, she nodded slowly.

"Mine, too."

"I could tell." Her breathing had slowed back to where it was when she was hanging from the wall. "You looked really nervous."

He gave a curt nod and grunted. "Are you having fun?"

Rei furrowed her brow in the middle of glaring at her opponent. She was wondering why he was making small talk in the middle of a fight. "Yeah. You're making it interesting."

"Good," he said with a smirk, "because you'll be doing this again next year!" He jumped backward, holding three kunai in each hand. With a shout, he threw them all at Rei. Seeing them coming, she turned her head and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the hits. She cried out as two of them stuck in her thigh, one in her shoulder, and another grazed her ribs. Her opponent was standing straight with a resolute look on his face. The crowd was silent. The proctor stepped forward from the wall, ready to declare the winner.

A quiet chuckle floated through the still air in the stadium. Rei's opponent widened his stance, a nervous look on his face. Rei looked up at him, laughing. With a pop, she vanished into a cloud of smoke, and the vines that had been holding the clone fell to the ground. The crowd gasped and people whispered to each other, confused. Rei's opponent's mouth fell open, and he looked around him worriedly now that he had no idea where she was. He pulled out a kunai and held it up in front of his face as he took a defensive stance.


	3. Chapter 3

There was a rustling sound as the real Rei jumped out of the tree she had been hiding in the whole time, and the crowd roared. Each of her hands held a kunai, and she had a big grin on her face. She went to slash her opponent, but he blocked the hit, sending a piercing ring throughout the stadium. When she tried again, she threw one kunai while attacking with the other. He twisted out of the way of the thrown one and blocked the other again. Rei jumped back with a spin and threw her remaining kunai. He jerked his head to the side, a small piece of his hair falling to the ground after the knife flew past him.

She giggled as she ran toward him, aiming a punch for a pressure point in his right shoulder. "Can you believe it was a clone the whole time?" He blocked it, and she moved to kick him in the ribs. "See, you're all tired now." He bent to the side and brought his knee up, blocking her foot. "I'm barely even breaking a sweat!" Punches and kicks rained down on him, and he blocked most of them, making the crowd go wild. While he was concentrating and panting with a serious look on his face, Rei was laughing. "I hope I do get to this again. It's really fun." With one last big effort, Rei jumped and did a flip, bringing her heel down toward his head. He sidestepped the kick, startled by the indentation her foot left in the dirt.

"But that couldn't have been a clone," he said as he jumped a few yards back from her. "I could hit it." He was bent over and panting, holding his arm from where one of Rei's kicks had landed. It was already starting to turn purple from the forming bruise.

"It was a shadow clone," she smiled, putting her hands on her hips. "Naruto taught me how to do it, but I still can't make as many as him. He can make over a hundred at once." She brought her arms up in front of her and spread them out, illustrating her point. "You should be glad you aren't fighting him." She closed her eyes in a smile.

He raised his eyebrows. "I think I am." He put his hand on his knee to help hold himself up.

"Hmm . . . let's see," she looked up for a moment in thought. "I used Naruto's technique. Now what'll I do?" She looked around until her eye caught sight of Shikamaru. He looked interested again, confusing Rei for a second time. She put the thought away for the moment and smirked. He saw it from up there and tilted his head. Kiba looked over at Shikamaru with a questioning look on his face.

Keeping the smirk, she looked over to her opponent, but it vanished when he saw him sitting on the ground. His hands were behind him, propping him up. "What's this, now?" She walked over to him and nudged his leg with her toe. His chest was visibly rising and following with his deep breaths. "How can you hope to become a chuunin if you're already this tired?" she asked, resting her hands on her hips. He squinted up at her, surprised at the concerned look on her face. "You're in the finals. You've already gotten here, and you're good. Why come this far just to quit?"

He looked to the side, avoiding her gaze. He paused before speaking. "If I'm this tired this soon, there's no way they're going to make me a chuunin." He looked back at her. "I should just give up and try again next time."

"Pfft." Rei rolled her eyes and folded her arms. "You remind me of someone else I know," she said with an upward glance at where Shikamaru was standing at the rail. "Get up and do your best now so that there won't have to be a next time."

"Huh…" He furrowed his brow, a thoughtful look on his face. "You know, you're right," he admitted. "You really inspired me. Thank you," he grinned.

Rei smiled back, but she felt a little weirded out. Who actually tells someone they feel inspired?

"Oh, but one thing." He sat up, placing his hands on his knees. His breathing was suddenly normal, and he wore a knowing smirk. "I'm feeling just fine."

Rei got a puzzled look on her face. "Wha–"

She was cut off by a large weight on her back. She felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her, pinning her arms to her sides. She was lifted from the ground and thrown to the side. She hit the wall with her shoulder, but he hadn't thrown her hard, so it didn't hurt too much. She got back to her feet, rubbing her shoulder and glaring at her opponent. The clone that was sitting on the ground disappeared as the real one did a couple hand signs. He stretched his hands out in front of him and chakra strings stretched out from his fingertips to the wall on either side of Rei.

Glaring at him, she ripped a kunai from her belt and cut the strings on her left side. She ran that way as he pulled the remaining strings back to him. Her eyes widened as more appeared in front of her, blocking her path. She bent her knees and slid along the ground just under the strings, picking up the run again after she cleared them. With one final leap, she threw the kunai at him blindly before becoming hidden in the trees. Rei didn't hesitate before starting a chain of hand signs. She lowered her head and closed her eyes.

"Shikamaru's turn," she whispered.

Rei's opponent readied himself for her to burst out of the trees and attack him, but it never came. This time, he knew better than to relax and kept his stance, scanning the tree line for any sign of movement. His body automatically tensed at the sound of leaves shifting and twigs snapping, but she hadn't jumped out at him. Instead, he looked up and saw her floating above the trees, kneeling on a small black disk a couple of feet in diameter. The crowd gasped, and his mouth fell open.

Rei smirked. She looked from the corner of her eyes to where Shikamaru stood with his eyes wide, making her giggle. She stood up straight and placed one hand on her hip and the other under her chin. "Impressive, yeah?" She didn't wait for a response before crouching down and gripping the front of the disk with both hands. She pulled off pieces of the disk and stretched out her fingers. The pieces automatically shifted to take the shape of her palms. The part she was standing on split in two, and each half surrounded her boots. It looked like Rei was flying.

She floated toward her stunned opponent, the crowd silent, anticipating what she would do now – wondering what she _could_ do now. She stopped just in front of him, hanging in the air just above the ground so that she was looking down at him the same way he had looked down at her when she was caught in his vines. "I'm having fun," she started, a sad smile on her face, "but we're going to have to end this eventu–"

"Release!" Her opponent made a quick hand sign, thinking she was just using a genjutsu. He opened his eyes to see her still floating in front of him. His eyebrows shot up when he saw her still hanging in the air in front of him.

"Sorry. This is real."

He only had time to comprehend what Rei said before she flew backward and brought her hands forward, the black material jumping from her hands to his. She spread her arms a ways apart, and his did the same. She moved her hands again, and the material on him pulled his arms behind his back. Behind him, the two pieces became one and held him like handcuffs. Rei moved her arms down, and he was pushed down onto his knees, doubled over. Keeping her left arm held straight out, she swept the other in a circle out to her side. At the same time, she bent her knee. As her hand passed her foot, the blackness jumped from her boot to her fingers. The piece in her hand swiftly morphed into a long, thin shape. She shifted her weight to be balancing on the foot that kept her hovering in the air.

Rei's opponent was unwillingly bent over on his knees, his arms bound behind him, an elegant, black katana just over his head. Rei was floating in front of him a foot from the ground, one knee bent to her chest, and one arm held straight out, the other holding the katana over his head. The shouting from the crowd drowned out the voice of the proctor as he declared Rei the winner of the match. She quickly released her jutsu and landed on the ground on one leg. All the different pieces of the original disk disintegrated, and her opponent was freed. He stood, rubbing his wrists and avoiding Rei's gaze.

"Congrats," he murmured, lowering his head to look at the ground. He turned and starting walking toward the exit that contained the stairs, hands in his pockets.

Rei jogged to catch up and starting walking by his side. "Hey, you did well. You don't have to actually win your match to become a chuunin." He sent her a sideways glance. "You could still make the cut," she smiled.

He smiled weakly back. "Thanks."

They walked on in silence toward the stairs, but once they walked into the shade of the stairwell, he spoke up.

"What was that black stuff?" he asked, turning his head to look at her.

Rei smirked. "Shadows. I can peel them from a surface and then change the shape and move it around."

"So that's how you flew?"

"Yep," she smiled. She stopped walking and looked at the wall. She reached out, brushing her fingers against the cold stone, and as she brought her hand back, some of the shadow stuck to her fingertips. "Touch a shadow, push chakra into it, and it'll follow the chakra and stick to you. You just change the shape of your chakra and the shadow changes, but there's a catch. If you don't have good chakra control, it'll drain you pretty quickly." The shadows on her fingers morphed into four small squares, then into four small spheres that floated just away from her hand. "Try it."

Rei's opponent turned toward the wall, eyeing it carefully. It made sense in theory, but he wasn't sure if he'd actually be able to do it. He reached out and planted his hand on the wall, concentrating on changing his chakra flow. When he thought he had it, he brought his hand back, looking at his palm. The heel of his hand and his fingertips had shadows stuck to them.

"That's not bad for the first time. Just practice evening out the chakra."

He nodded with a grin on his face. He balled his hand into a fist and relaxed it again, a small ball resting on his palm. "Cool…" He placed his other hand over it and squeezed, flattening out the shadow. "How do I release it?" He opened up his hands, the shadow now flat against one of his palms.

"Cut off the flow of chakra," she answered. Her own small spheres dissipated as she released her hold on them.

Her opponent watched her and did the same with his. "So do you have to be touching the shadow to control it?"

"I did when I first started, but as you get better, you learn how to do it without having to touch it." Rei started walking up the stairs, him following. "And using the shadows to support weight, like what you have to do to 'fly,' takes a lot of practice because you actually feel most of the weight. At first, it's hard to concentrate on your chakra while holding up something heavy."

After he thought about it for a second, he nodded. "Makes sense."

The rest of the walk was spent in a comfortable silence until they got to the area of the stands that held Rei's friends.

"This is where I'm sitting," she said, stopping by the entrance. He stopped with her and turned to face her. "I hope we get to fight again sometime," she smiled. "I had fun."

He returned the smile. "I'll be practicing." He started to continue walking, but stopped and turned again. "I'm sorry, but I don't even know your name." He scratched the back of his neck with a sheepish grin on his face.

Rei smiled back at him. "I'm Zaiko Rei." She copied his timidity. "And I don't know yours either."

He laughed, relieved it wasn't only him. "I'm Wonbe Kuro," he said, bowing his head.

It was Rei's turn to laugh as she returned the gesture. "I'll see you later, then, Kuro."

They parted ways with mutual smiles.


	4. Chapter 4

Rei hopped down the steps between the rows of benches, taking them two at a time, to find her spot next to Kiba when an intense tremor shook the whole arena. She flung out her arms to steady herself, luckily not hitting anyone around her. Shortly after it ended, Rei carefully went down the remaining steps and snaked between the people by the rail. Again, Kiba grabbed her arm and pulled her to the rail between him and Shikamaru. The crowd went hysterical, cheering for the winner of the match.

"Was that an earthquake?" She looked down, searching the arena floor. There was a crevice spanning most of the area, and there was a huge gaping hole in the stands on the other side of the stadium.

"No, that was someone winning their match in five seconds flat," Kiba replied, the words all strung together. He gripped Rei's shoulders, turning her to him, an astonished look on his face. "You can fly?"

Rei grinned. "No, that was –"

"Shadows." Rei and Kiba both looked over to Shikamaru who was facing the arena floor, his arms folded across his chest, a bored look on his face.

Kiba looked even more confused. "How did you —"

"She did it only after being in the shade of the trees," he explained in a casual voice. "And after she used Naruto's shadow clone strategy, she looked up here and smirked at me. It only made sense that she was about to use something that I do." He glanced over at Rei from the corner of his eye, then continued watching the proctor and some medical nin down on the arena floor, looking for the person who lost the match, searching the cracks and crevice in the ground.

Rei grinned at Shikamaru. "I got the idea after watching you train a few months ago."

His shoulders raised and lowered with his sigh. "You could have enlightened me. Naruto knows you can do shadow clones."

"Well, I . . . wanted to surprise everyone." She was wondering why she had to defend herself. When Shikamaru didn't say anything, she stepped into his line of sight, and he avoided her eyes. "It's my technique," she said, her voice taking on a hint of hostility. "I just got the idea from you." Kiba was standing by the wall, hoping he wouldn't get dragged into whatever this was. Rei waited for a response from Shikamaru.

"My match is about to start." He turned and walked away up the stairs, disappearing behind the wall at the top.

Rei was left watching him, her mouth slightly open, an offended look on her face. "What's his problem?"

Kiba had also watched him go. "Maybe he's jealous."

"Whatever." She turned and leaned forward onto the rail. The kid who won the previous match had used a second jutsu to make the giant crevice disappear, and it repaired the hole in the stands. The loser of the match was lying sprawled out on the ground. Rei couldn't help but feel sorry for him. He didn't even get a chance to show what he could do. She remembered back to seeing him during the preliminaries, and he was good. It made her want to go up against him herself.

As he was carried out of the arena, the winner simply walked away, hands in his pockets and not a scratch on him. Rei felt an almost burning anger for him, but she felt better knowing that since he only did one move, there was a slim chance he would become a chuunin. The kages needed to see more than just that. Something similar happened the year before.

Kiba kept quiet when he saw Rei watching Shikamaru walk out onto the arena floor with a bitter look on her face. Temari was waiting for him with a smirk. They both signaled to the proctor that they were ready, and the match started as the proctor signaled them to begin.

Rei sighed and closed her eyes as a light breeze from Temari's giant fan hit her face. Even though she was annoyed with him, part of Rei was excited to see Shikamaru in action, since she hadn't seen him fight since the preliminaries. Normally, they trained together when they weren't training with their teams, and much of the time, it meant they were fighting each other. Rei had started to learn how to predict his strategies, giving her an edge in any battle she fought with any other opponent since she was learning to think and plan ahead. Thinking it over, she figured she had him to thank for her victory over Kuro. Before she'd fought with Shikamaru so much, she probably wouldn't have thought to start out with a clone, and so she would have been caught in the vines herself.

"Rei, look at that!" Without taking his eyes off the fight, Kiba reached over and shook Rei's arm. She opened her eyes to see Shikamaru on the other side of the arena floor surrounded by shadows. His jacket was floating in the air like a parachute, and she just had to smirk. If she was Temari, she would have looked up every once in a while. Shikamaru had tried that on her once before, and, sadly, it worked.

Temari seemed to finally get wise to Shikamaru's strategy and hid behind a wall of earth. She was smirking, apparently having a new plan, but Rei saw her eyes grow and her smirk vanish. Rei's brow furrowed in confusion until she noticed the stream of Shikamaru's shadow poking out of a hole in the ground left from Naruto's match. Around her, the people were cheering for Shikamaru, especially the genin. Only Gaara and Kankuro looked unhappy with the winner of the match.

The crowd nearest Shikamaru gasped, and the people cheering stopped, wondering what they'd missed. Whispers were flying through the stadium, and it took a while for the news to reach Rei's side.

An old man leaned far over the railing on the other side of the wall from Kiba and tried to get his attention. "Hey!" Kiba turned to look at him and leaned over the rail to hear him better. "The winner withdrew himself from the match!" Rei's face turned to a look of utter shock, but Kiba was able to voice what she was too stunned to ask.

"Why did he do that?" He looked down at Shikamaru, who was walking toward the stairs to return to the stands. Hearing the news himself, Naruto jumped over the rail and ran over to Shikamaru.

Rei missed the rest of the conversation between Kiba and the other spectator. She weaved through the crowd of the people and practically flew up the stairs. At the top, she turned, storming down the hallway toward the stairs that led to the arena floor. She met Shikamaru on the stairs. He and Naruto were talking, but once they saw Rei, they stopped. Halfway down the steps, she stopped, looking down at Shikamaru while he looked up at her, Naruto standing next to him.

Suddenly, Rei reached out and smacked him across the cheek. "Why the heck would you do something like that?" She was almost screaming.

Shikamaru was holding his face, feeling the warmth of blood rushing to the area that would turn bright red within seconds. "Fighting is boring –"

"So?" Rei raised her voice even further. "You could have become a chuunin, and maybe if you go down and talk to the proctor, you still can be! How could you have been so stupid to go and do th—"

"Rei." He stopped her rambling with his apathetic voice. "They're still going to count it. The proctor already talked to me."

Rei only stood there, looking down at him, a confused expression on her face.

"You didn't let me finish." Shikamaru climbed up one more step so that he was level with her. "Fighting is boring when I'm not up against you."

Her face changed seamlessly from puzzled to surprised. Her eyes got even bigger when Shikamaru leaned forward and kissed her. She just stood there dumbly, too stunned to do anything. Naruto averted his eyes with a disappointed look on his face. When Shikamaru pulled back, Rei struggled to comprehend what had just happened. Shikamaru smirked at her. Slowly, she smiled back.

Together, the three of them walked back up the stairs, chattering, but they got quiet when Gaara passed them on his way down. Rei and Shikamaru met back up with Kiba, asking if Sasuke had shown up yet. While everyone was waiting for him, Rei and Shikamaru were leaning against the wall, talking to Kiba. Rei was also partly leaning on Shikamaru, feeling the warmth from his arm. She was smiling the whole time.

After a minute or so, Sasuke and Kakashi finally showed up in a flurry of leaves. Even though she didn't really like Sasuke, Rei had to admit that he'd improved his wardrobe a bit. Blue just didn't seem like his color. As the match was about to begin, Shikamaru and Kiba moved up to the rail, squeezing themselves in between other people that had swarmed the place to get the best possible view of the match. Rei hung back, not really too excited to see either of the "prodigies" in action.

"Do you guys want anything to eat?" she asked, her arms folded and the traces of a grin on her face. "I'm gonna go to get food while the lines are short."

Kiba looked over his shoulder at her since he couldn't really turn his body since he was stuffed between Shikamaru and a stranger. "I'm good, thanks."

Shikamaru also turned his head, looking past the person standing behind him. "Same here."

Rei smiled and shook her head at the two as she left to get herself something to snack on. She had to practically fight her way up the stairs. This time, when she reached the top, the halls were nearly empty since many of the people who came to the Exams this time around only came to see this match, anyway. She walked the short distance to a kart that was selling Ichiraku ramen and bought a bowl of beef ramen. After paying the man, she grabbed and broke a pair of chopsticks and received her steaming bowl of noodles. She wouldn't have been surprised if the smell alone brought Naruto running, but it tasted fantastic. She walked back to the stairs, blowing on the bowl to cool down the noodles.

When she started to go down, she saw TenTen coming up and flashed her a quick smile before slurping on her ramen. She was a bit surprised when TenTen stepped in front of her, a shy look on her face.

"Can I ask you something real quick?"

With big eyes and ramen hanging out of her mouth, Rei nodded.

They climbed back up the stairs to where they led out into the empty and much quieter hallway. Rei quickly swallowed her mouthful of noodles and directed her attention to Ten Ten.

"Sorry if it's kind of a weird question, but, uh…" Her voice trailed off, and she looked to the side at the crowd of people cheering for the match.

"What is it?" Rei asked with a polite smile.

"I was wondering," she started, looking back at Rei and lowering her voice, "do you like Shikamaru?"

It was Rei's turn to look to her side at the crowd of people, but her eyes rested on one person in particular. He was standing against the wall now, his head turned to watch the match over Kiba's shoulder. His hands were in his pockets, and one of his legs was bent with his foot planted on the wall. Rei could see his shoulders rise and fall as he closed his eyes and sighed. He turned his head to the other side and opened his eyes, looking directly at Rei. Seeing her talking to TenTen, he raised an eyebrow with a small smile on his face.

Everything seemed to click as it fell into place. He and Choji were looking over at _her_ when they were talking. When he asked Kiba something before her match, it had been about _her_. He moved up to the rail to get a better look at _her_ match. He'd been watching _her_ closely during her match, and even Kiba noticed. He felt betrayed because _she_ had improved upon his technique without even telling him.

"Rei?"

She blinked, coming back to reality. She looked back to TenTen.

"Do you?"

After a pause, Rei looked back down at Shikamaru.

She smirked.


End file.
